People's Spellcasters Company
This illegal guild is a hub of smugglers, fences, specializing in theft of magical items and spellbooks and forgery of documents and personal effects marked with magical signatures—all under the egalitarian pretenses of making magic available to all. The Company employs both wizards and thieves, and the occasional bard, for its activities. It has many contacts among the middle class scholars and clerks, and among foreigners seeking Glantrian arcana.
Organization
The People's Spellcasters Company has about one hundred members. Most are midlevel operatives. About one third are apprentices, simple thugs, and other non-specialists. The rest are cell leaders or Guild Masters. The Company also relies on a large number of contacts, supporters, freelancers, and mislead supporters to their cause.
The People's Spellcasters Company is lead by a select council, the Board of Guild Masters. These mysterious characters number seven all in all, and are in direct control of most operations, keeping the guild together with an iron fist.
Directly under the Board of Guild Masters, there are the cell leaders. The cell leaders take out the orders of the Board and direct the work of the operatives. The number of cell leaders depends on the number of active operations, but their number is usually double that of the Guild Masters.
The rank and file of the Company is its operatives: thieves, burglars, smugglers, forgers, fences, scholars and wizards. These operatives generally belong to cells, but some of the more powerful operatives do not and instead report directly to the Guild Masters.
At the bottom of the hierarchy of the Company are the apprentices, the bodyguards, and other non-specialized members, who assist in the daily business of the Company.
Company Operations
The People's Spellcasters Company have activities of a typical thieves' guild, but also specific operations involving the traffic of spells, spellbooks, and magical items.
Theft. Stealing magical items and spellbooks is the primary activity for the Company. Every stolen book or item is carefully examined by fences and scholars, who appraise it and decide whether it can be sold—or if it is worth more attention. In the latter cast, usually with special magical treasure or new and unique spells, these are passed along to specialized scholars, who investigate their origin, properties and report directly to the Board of Guild Masters.
Forgery. The Company routinely produces forged crowns, documents, and licenses (especially for arcane activities), in addition to low quality magical items and scrolls. The licenses are often sold to spies, criminals, foreign wizards, and clerics, while the latter products usually feed the stalls of charlatans at the Arcanium.
Smuggling. This is another priority activity of the guild, particularly with foreigners hoping to break through the mysteries and secrets of Glantrian wizardry. With their considerable arcane potential, the Company is the most reliable provider of these kinds of services, though ultimately, the results are far from satisfactory for the foreign parties. The Guild Masters recognize that the fall of the magocracy would seriously damage their profits, so they avoid getting involved in activities that would seriously endanger the Principalities. On the other hand, when there is little at stake (such as the minor matter of avoiding import and export taxes), the Company is eager to provide its services to almost any party.
Training. Differing from the more traditional guilds, the Company does not offer training to the public. Those trained by the guild are most often prospective members, even though they need not be aware of it. Training to outsiders is seldom provided, though sometimes a foreign wizard may be trained in order to put the Company in good light among the foreigners, who after all make up a large share of the Company's market.
Arcanium. The Arcanium is the biggest market for the charlatans of the Company. A great deal of low quality materials and magical items, either stolen or cheaply produced by the Company, are sold as the annual magical fair, raking in large profits to cover for the Company's expenses. Even substandard creations and failed experiments by the apprentices can fetch a handsome sum if sold by the silver-tongued "Mayflies" (so called since they disappear so swiftly as the insects by that name).
Relations with Other Groups and Sects
The current policies of the Board of Guild Masters tend to maintain neutral associations with other guilds and covert groups, such as the Unseen Hand and the Beggars' Court. The People's Spellcasters Company does not wish to have direct involvement in their activities. Instead, the Board prefers to employ freelancers instead of other guilds for jobs the Company cannot handle. This allows the Company to spread its renown in the Glantrian underworld and limits the need to rely on potentially rival organizations.
The People's Spellcasters Company and the Fellowship of the Pouch are frequent rivals and relations are strained, at times even bordering on the openly hostile—or as open as underground activities can be. The Company's considerable magical might gives it an edge over its rival, which the Fellowship of the Pouch is able to balance only through its strong contacts with foreign thieves' guild, especially in the neighboring Republic of Darokin.
Only the Sages' League is in agreement with the People's Spellcasters Company, although not overtly so. The many scholars and sages from both groups advocate the same philosophy that knowledge, particularly magical knowledge, should be shared freely to all, although the more conscientious members of the Sages' League disagree with the questionable methods of the Company.
Career Paths in the Company
Spell-Thief. The Spell-thief is a wizard or a thief specialized in the theft of magical items, spells, spellbooks, and, by extension, any item that might be linked with arcane lore. His is a risky job, as most magical items are dangerous in themselves or protected by magical traps. Few non-spellcaster thieves last long in this profession.
Spell-Fence. The Company's spell-fences are more than the usual dealers in stolen items. They are also expert appraisers of the goods they buy and sell, and usually adept at discovering counterfeited items. They are often diviners or abjurers, though many other specialists are employed for the special jobs involving specific magic items.
Scholar. These wizards and sages who uncover the truth about every acquired spell and magical treasure are the hidden strength of the People's Spellcasters Company. Though most of these scholars honestly pursue such knowledge for its own value and not for gain, the Company is quick to convert their knowledge into money. Many scholars are idealists, who believe that magic should be freely available to everyone. Most of them, being sages of notable wisdom and intellect, hold to their own philosophical system, and the Company allows them to promote it through pamphlets and manifestos. These writings have benefited the Company's reputation and given their activities a semblance of respectability.
Charlatans. The Company's charlatans are true con artists of Glantri. These "Mayflies" are the staple of the Arcanium, often seeming as the powerful, secretive wizard who sells low cost spells of "incredible power" to gullible students of the Great School of Magic. Such spells or magic items are invariably frauds, ranging from substandard to defective to outright cursed!
Craftsman. The craftsmen of the guild toil endlessly at the production of forged documents, magic items, spellbooks, and other items illegally traded by the Company. They provide the most sound profit base to the guild.
Agitator. These characters deal with the political maneuvers of the Company, spreading its ideals and veneering its criminal activities with a mantle of ideological respectability. They travel extensively through the Principalities, and write political pamphlets and manifestos, or spread those of more scholarly guild members. Their works, while being quite popular, are less sound than those of scholars, and usually address a lower class audience.
Guild Master. The leaders of the Company control all the activities, both day-to-day and special ones. They are invariably provided with strong covers, including false identities and jobs. They include both the actual Guild Masters and the cell leaders.
Mole. The Company employs a large number of spies, mostly in the government, the Sages' League and other institutions in the middle class ward of Glantri City. These people report on the activities of the Glantrian Constabulary and of various societies, allowing the Company to avoid disruptions of its activities, to assess dangers and potential profits of thieving and smuggling enterprises, and to acquire information about potential targets.
Members of Import
Didier d'Ambreville. A bastard d'Ambreville family of Nouvelle Averoigne, Didier claims to be son of Étienne, though he really isn't—His mother was a lover of Guillaume d'Ambreville, and later of his loony brother Gaston, and was not exactly sure who the father actually was. He is angry that the d'Ambrevilles have not accepted him as a relative, and enjoys his work as an agitator in the Company, especially when he can bring shame on his "relatives."
Temur Yeragai. A thoughtful planner, Temur is a voice of balance in the Board of Guild Masters. As a Krondaharan who has no loyalty to any of the Ethengar or Glantrian Khans, he is in the best position to evaluate when the Company's actions are getting out of hand. His greatest task as Guild Master is therefore to take care that the idealists, the mercenaries, or the fanatics of the Company do not go too far. He also ensures that the Company is not exposed to the spies of the Golden Khan—or worse, the counterespionage force led by Lord Urmahid Krinagar.
Author: Giampaolo Agosta